Yesterday, Michael Lohan (father of Lindsay) announced that he would be publishing his memoir, "I'm Not Your Daddy Dearest ... If I Can Turn My Life Around, So Can You."
We caught up with him via phone as he was on his way to the Boca Raton office of TransMedia public relations. (TransMedia CEO Thomas J. Madden is co-authoring the book and called Lohan a "brilliant guy.")
Lohan says he moved to Boca three or four months ago. Prior to that, "I was living in Fort Lauderdale. I was sharing a place with Dennis Rodman at the Ocean Manor hotel!" They weren't roommates, he explains, but they each frequently booked the same suite. "When he wasn't there, I was there."
Lohan was a commodities trader in New York in the 1980s. He did time for contempt of court after being involved in what he describes as an insider trading case involving other people. "I wouldn't tell on them," Lohan says. "So I did time for contempt."
In the 1990s, Lindsay grew from a 3-year-old Ford model to a child soap opera star, then began getting film roles. "I was on parole," Lohan says. "It was my fourth or fifth year on parole -- and Lindsay was on the set of the Parent Trap and had an asthma attack." Lohan says that by going to care for her, he violated parole and had to do another year and a half in jail.
After that, he says, he did various business projects, including financing a movie studio in Texas and partnering in Billboard Live, a now-defunct Miami Beach club. It was there, Lohan says, during a party, that Lindsay sang "Happy Birthday" with Aaron Carter, and Emilio Estefan noted that she could sing and soon signed her to a music deal.
As Lindsay's professional star rose, trouble followed. Michael Lohan says that on February 23, 2005, he got an anonymous phone call that Lindsay had overdosed on a movie set in New Orleans. He says he made some calls and determined that a certain man had given her drugs. "I was on my way to the airport to kill this guy," he said, but he had already downed three Irish coffees and crashed into a telephone pole. The resulting DUI sent him back to jail.
"I was in jail and I started to think about it a lot: What am I going to do when I get out? Thank God for what happened. I decided to go into the ministry. I went to Bible college when I got out of jail." He became a faith-based counselor and says he worked on anti-human-trafficking projects.
Lohan says he moved to South Florida about three years ago to work on something called Paxonite, which he
describes as a natural "instant pain reliever." ;Now, he says, he's involved in a social
media site that Disney is involved with, but he can't discuss it until the deal is done and papers are signed.
Then there's Vital Oxide -- "It's based in Pompano -- it's the only nontoxic disinfectant that
kills every germ." He says Vital Oxide has contracts with the Navy, as well as with prisons in New York and New Jersey and with Miami Beach hotel Shore Club. "The bungalows there cost $10,000 a night to rent, and they had
really severe mold and mildew. With two applications, it was completely
gone."
Another company he's involved with is Drinkable Air. "You're not going to
believe this," he says, but the company makes a solar-powered device that "takes the
humidity out of air and produces water. It oxygenates the water and
promotes healing." Lohan says he's franchising Drinkable Air and envisions countries with water shortages having "water stations like gas stations." Someone at the U.N. is interested, he
says, and the idea has applications in "Mexico, Thailand, Africa..."
Other good news for Lohan: He and his girlfriend -- former Star magazine reporter/private detective/Celebrity Rehab contestant Kate Major -- had a baby boy on January 30, despite a domestic violence incident between them in Tampa in 2011. "After she got pregnant, she stopped medication, stopped smoking, and got healthy. When people aren't on pills or drinking, their whole demeanor changes."
The baby is "doing great," Lohan reports. "He's
like Lindsay -- he's up all night. I think I bred a bunch of
vampires."
These days, he says, he and Lindsay are on
speaking terms. "We talk... It's not always the greatest conversation,
but we talk." He says that she is -- to his disapproval -- hanging out in New York with the guys from 4AM DJs ("She doesn't belong hanging out with DJs") and preparing for court dates in Los Angeles this March, related to a car crash that happened while she was on probation. She was charged with lying to police, obstructing officers, and reckless driving.
Daughter Ali
is in Korea modeling, Lohan says ("She's doing a cover for Vogue"), and his son Michael Jr. does restaurant promotions and manages a band in New
York. He says he doesn't get to see son Cody too much, but Ashley -- the daughter he wasn't entirely sure was his until a big reveal on a Maury Povich-esque TV show -- is well, and "I talk to her all the time."
How does he respond to critics who say he' s capitalizing on his children? "I don't capitalize on
anything -- if anything, the [critics] beat me up over it. But if they say something about
my daughter, I'm not going to let them lie about my family!"
Last week, Lindsay's ex-girlfriend Samantha Ronson's mother called Lindsay "psychotic" and Michael Lohan fought back, saying Ronson was the one who'd used Lindsay, as the relationship boosted Ronson's booking fee from $5,000 per gig to $25,000 per gig.
Criticism, he says, "is like water off a duck's back now -- they can say whatever they want."
Lohan says he's been "offered to be the host of a well-known reality show -- one that's been on the air for about 12 years" and will decide at the end of February whether to accept.
And his book, he says, will hopefully find a publisher and come out this fall. So far, he hasn't decided what will be on the cover. "Well, I'm not going to wear a thong or anything."
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